Charlie, Charlie, Charlie – More Conspriacy Theories - The Black College Monthly "Controversy"

Charlie Grapski seems particularly upset that the Alachua County Republican Party took out an ad in the Election Guide issue of Black College Monthly newspaper. So upset, in fact, that he refuses to believe that we did take out an ad. According to Charlie, Mr. Goston, the publisher of the newspaper, either put the ad in there, himself, or the Alachua County Republican Party co-published the newspaper with Mr. Goston.

Both of these theories are absurd and are exemplary of a mind that sees only conspiracy instead of debate. You see, Charlie Grapski thinks very highly of his own opinions. So highly, in fact, that if your opinion or my opinion is different than his, it can only be based in un-pure, self-serving motives or it was arrived at because you are a good person who is being duped by other evil beings.

Mr. Goston did call us, explained that he was running an election edition of his newspaper, and wanted both major political parties to have an opportunity to place an ad. The Alachua County Republican Party did pay for an ad in that newspaper. We designed the ad and emailed it to Black College Monthly.

Here is where the confusion begins:

When the newspaper came out, the ad was cut off at the bottom. The website address and the political disclaimer were missing. Immediately, I alerted Mr. Goston. He told me that another ad didn’t print correctly, either. Like a conscientious businessman, Mr. Goston called the printer, corrected the printing mistakes and ordered a complete reprint. We also called Alachua County Supervisor of Elections, Pam Carpenter, and alerted her to the fact that the ad did not print as designed and was missing the legal disclaimer. We then sent her a copy of the original ad for her files.

Within a couple of days, the reprints hit the street with the original, correct ad.

If Charlie Grapski were interested in the truth, he could have called Black College Monthly newspaper and asked about the ad. They would have told him of the error and the reprint. But then Mr. Grapski wouldn’t have any fodder for his conspiracy theory, now, would he? In fact, it is likely that Mr. Grapski already knows of the reprint but chose to digitize and post the original, flawed printing of the newspaper as a means to get his band of conspiracy warriors frothing at the mouth.

My challenge to Mr. Grapski is to get the second edition of the Black College Monthly newspaper, scan the corrected pages and replace the flawed pages with the corrected ones in the digitized version on his website. It would be the ethical thing to do. In fact, I have a copy of the second edition of that newspaper. Mr. Grapski can borrow mine if promises to return it.

But he won’t do that. Mr. Grapski will use some linguistic acrobatics to justify his conspiracy theory.


Posted by Stafford Jones